Charlie Parker Quotes and Sayings - Page 1
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“Don't play the saxophone. Let it play you.”
-- Charlie Parker -
“You've got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail.”
-- Charlie Parker -
“Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.”
-- Charlie Parker -
“Master your instrument. Master the music. And then forget all that bullshit and just play.”
-- Charlie Parker -
“If you don't live it, it won't come out your horn.”
-- Charlie Parker -
“Once I could play what I heard inside me, that's when I was born.”
-- Charlie Parker -
“I realized by using the high notes of the chords as a melodic line, and by the right harmonic progression, I could play what I heard inside me. That's when I was born.”
-- Charlie Parker -
“When I first heard music, I thought it should be very clean, very precise. Something that people could understand, something that was beautiful.”
-- Charlie Parker -
“I kept thinking there's bound to be something else? I could hear it sometimes, but I couldn't play it.”
-- Charlie Parker -
“Any musician who says he is playing better either on tea, the needle, or when he is juiced, is a plain, straight liar. When I get too much to drink, I can't even finger well, let alone play decent ideas. ... You can miss the most important years of your life, the years of possible creation.”
-- Charlie Parker -
“Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom.”
-- Charlie Parker -
“I'm very glad to have met you. I like your playing very much.”
-- Charlie Parker -
“I don't care who likes it or buys it. Because if you use that criterion, Mozart would never have written Don Giovanni, Charlie Parker would have never played anything but swing music.”
-- Charlie Parker -
“I'd been getting bored with the stereotyped changes (harmonies) that were being used all the time. ... I found that by using the higher intervals of a chord as a melody line and backing them with appropriately related changes I could play the thing I'd been hearing. I came alive.”
-- Charlie Parker -
“Some guys said 'Here's bop!' Wham! They said, 'Here's something we can make money on!' Wham! 'Here's a comedian!' Wham! Here's a guy who talks funny talk!'”
-- Charlie Parker -
“They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.”
-- Charlie Parker